Driver saves Jackson, Ala., bridge jumper

A woman who jumped 100 feet from a bridge in Jackson, Ala., Tuesday survived without a broken bone, according to police who told how her rescue started when a passing motorist saw the woman leap.

Brenda Moseley, of Leroy, was on the phone with her husband, Chris, at about 4:15 Tuesday afternoon, and driving north on U.S. 43 when she passed over the Joe C. McCorquodale Bridge, Jackson Police Chief Charles Burge said Wednesday.

She saw the woman leap from the bridge.

Chris Moseley was headed south on the same road, stopped his car on the bridge and saw the 48-year-old Jackson woman, whom police declined to identify, floating in the water and apparently alive, Burge said.

Jackson Police Sgt. Josh Garrett and Officer Ben Marshall were the first two authorities on the scene.

By the time they arrived, Moseley had parked his car on the bridge and maneuvered his way toward the river, they said, but the woman was being carried by the current and already about a quarter mile from the bridge, they said Wednesday.

The officers said they found an opening in a fence and made their way to the bank of the river.

Their boots sank into the mud as they stepped into the chilly water. They pulled off their uniform shirts, guns and vests and set them next to the water.

Moseley swam toward the woman three times before he reached her, about 25 yards out, the current pulling her downstream, the sergeant and officer said. The water was probably 11 feet deep at its deepest mark.

Standing in 5 feet of water up to his shoulders, Marshall grabbed a rescue rope with a flotation device attached and hurled it toward Moseley, who grabbed the float.

Marshall and Garrett said they were concerned for Moseley as much as the woman because they feared she might try to pull him under water.

"Right as they got to shore, Chris was about to give out," Garrett said. "The current was pulling him. He had swam a long way."

Marshall added, "He was calling for me to come get them, but I couldn't because I was too weighted down."

As Moseley and the woman were pulled toward the shore, Garrett kept her neck stable and Marshall held her back.

Her body shivered and they tried to make sure she didn't go into shock.

"She was talking to us the whole time," Garrett said.

They said she told them she had wanted to die, but they declined to reveal her reason.

"Basically we're just trying to keep her talking," Marshall said.

They said they kept most of her body under the surface, where the water was warmer.

A paramedic helped pull the woman from the water.

Burge praised his officers for their efforts, and Garrett and Marshall praised Moseley.

Burge said the woman was "lucky to be alive," and Garrett added that "halfway down she may have changed her mind."

Her most serious physical injury, police said, appeared to be a bruised sinus. She was being treated at Jackson Medical Center, Burge said, and would undergo a psychological evaluation.